Early Adapter Blues

Well it's happened again..after spending over $400.00 ( of the company's money) on a Treo 700p smartphone a few months ago, Palm has just launched their newest smartphone, the Centro, yesterday. It will be available on Sprint for the next 3 months and appears to cost $100.00 and comes with a $100.00 rebate with a two year subscription. So the phone is, essentially, free. I think It does all that my Treo does; links my calendar and contacts with online sync services, does email, and runs all the Palm apps I have become unable to live my life without ( I know this sounds stupid but I have a program on my phone called ChordLab that will play any chord in any key and write out and play any inversion I can throw at it. It gives me diagrams of the inversions in my choice of treble or bass clef notation, a little keyboard, a guitar fretboard or if I really feel low-rent, tabulature... I also carry two complete dictionaries and 1 thesaurus...on my phone!! Allah be praised!!!) It seems the only difference between the Treo and the Centro is in price- early adapters blues again.
This has happened before. I have in the desk drawer to my left, 2 dead ipods. One is an original iPod bought about two weeks after they were released ( 4 -5 years ago??). The other is a dead iPod Video that I purchased about two days after it was released. I was subject to all the early iPod battery problems with the original and did a little better with the video model but as soon as I got my stuff, I watched the prices drop like a brick in the ocean. The iPod I currently use ( because all the previous models have seriously trashed hardware that Apple wants $150.00 to fix..) is a new model, the "Classic" (I guess it now takes but 4 years for something to become a classic...does that mean that my 1997 pathfinder is a classic-geez it must be a superclassic...). The "Classic" plays great, has a ton of storage ( 80 Gigs!!) and costs about 60% less than my first iPod .The price of the "Classic" is dangerously close to half of what the 30 gig video unit cost. I suppose the good news is that I have the money for such things.

At least, I didn't get burned by the iPhone price reduction, however truth be told, I almost did. I bought my Treo the week that iPhone was released. I went with the Treo because AT&T doesn't have service at my home. I "sacrificed" the iPhone for the Treo. But the hardware gods have shown me no mercy

I don't even want to talk about what my first computer cost...

Why does anyone care about OJ or Britney Spears?

The war in Iraq drags on.
Genocide in Africa goes unnoticed.
The American people are committing "suicide by carbohydrate" and 60% of the population is considered overweight - 35% are children.
The President of the United States is, by contemporary definition, insane.
It goes on and on.
With all of this going on, how could any person possibly care about the troubles of Vanessa Hudgens, Britney Spears or OJ Simpson??
The patients are running the asylum...

Unresolved Filial Issues??

Bush claims to be listening to God. BinLaden claims to be listening to God. I don't think either is listening to anyone.
BTW, did you catch that BinLaden, in his latest videotape, exhorted his followers to smash capitalism? Pretty serious talk for someone who came from one of the wealthiest Saudi families of all time. And did BinLaden's dad inherit his billions?? Nope, he made it all in the construction business- the good old fashioned capitlist way...
So is Osama working out filial issues by spewing hate and training suicide bombers?? Is Bush trying to prove to his father that he can do what Bush Sr. couldn't do ( bring Saddam down)??
These thoughts beg the question; If either of these misguided fools had received treatment for their megalomania at some opportune point in time, would there be 3000 less dead US soldiers, countless less dead Iraqis, and would the towers still be standing??

Subconscious Astronaut??

OK, you be the judge. I never really thought much about how the unconscious or subconscious portion of your brain interacts with your conscious behavior. I guess I assumed there was a link somewhere but again, I never really thought much about it. Well, consider this;
This past summer I had the opportunity to tour the Kennedy Space Center and watch the liftoff of the Shuttle Endeavor. It was a very emotional day for me - firstly, I have always wanted to see the live launch of the Shuttle and it was so nice to be able to actually do one of those things on the list of stuff you want to do before your time is up. Secondly, the tour and exhibits at the Space Center museums brought me back to my childhood when I just about worshipped the astronauts. I knew all their names, their missions - the whole works. I always said that I wanted to be a test pilot so I could become an astronaut. Also, in the exhibit photos of all the initial launches and control rooms, there were pictures of all the engineers. All these engineers looked so much like my father when I was a kid that it just blew me away- the black glasses, the mechanical pencil in the pocket, the slide rule, the bow tie... So really, it was a great day for me.
When I returned to the office, my boss had shaved his beard after years (18 that I know of) of wearing it. While talking with him I told him that I had been considering getting a really short haircut for a while and he said " well, nothing the matter with a little change". I agreed and since I was going away for a week's vacation in Maine the next day, I went out to my stylist and had my hair cut within an inch of it's life. The cut was what we used to call a "crew cut" - the style that is currently favored by police officers, military guys etc. It took a little bit of time to get used to but it was great to go in the ocean or the shower and towel dry my hair and be done with it. I also was reminded, in the mirror, of the kid who wore that haircut for the first fourteen years of his life. I felt like I had come a long way. After wearing my hair long (ish) for years I was oddly comfortable with it.
Fast forward a few weeks and I'm back in the office again and I'm reviewing some materials I got at my Florida conference (where I saw the shuttle). Out of a notebook, an 8 x 10 glossy photo fell to the floor. I had picked it up at the Space Center- a black and white photo of Alan Shepard, the first American in space. He was talking to some people after his historical first sub-orbital flight. I had to laugh- there was Alan Shepard with my new haircut. The same haircut worn by all the Mercury astronauts...
So I wonder- If I said to myself "I want to get an Astronaut Haircut" I would have censored the thought immediately and made sure I mentioned it to no one. After all, I'm a responsible adult - Dr. Welts - not some kid dreaming of becoming an astronaut and mimicking everything about them. But maybe that kid is still there - maybe I just forget about him...maybe he never gave up the astronaut wish...
So what do you think - did my unconscious mind take responsibility for communicating from that deep part of me and then disguise the real desire so I could give myself an astronaut haircut?? Or is this a bunch of silly coincidences and the expression of someone who has too much time on his hands ?? I'd love your opinion..